Online Sellers Using Your Browsing History to Price Gouge You! And How to Stop it!

If the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data collection and spying schemes on Americans have made you reconsider the state of your privacy, you may be shocked to learn that some online merchants are also now using your personal data to rip you off when you shop online. According to new reports, some internet businesses are actually tracking users’ browsing histories and charging them more for goods and services if they visit “high-end” websites that sell expensive products.

As reported by the U.K.’s Guardian, some online travel merchants, for instance, are charging users more for plane fares and hotel stays if their browsing histories reveal a liking for expensive products and services. Users who visit websites that sell fancy jewelry, for example, or that promote lavish vacations could end up paying more for the travel services to get there, as opposed to other users whose browsing histories reveal a more frugal approach to life.

“Having your data passed around can … lead you to be charged more for an item,” writes Charles Arthur for Guardian.co.uk. “f your browsing history shows you visit high-end sites, some sites will increase prices. (That’s why plane fares can drop if you delete the ‘cookie’ files in your browser.)”

To put it another way, some of the very same private data being collected by the occupying federal powers is also being collected, at least to some degree, by online businesses for the purpose of “customizing” the prices of products for individual users. This means that so-called “rich” folks, or even just people who visit websites that look “rich,” could be paying more than everybody else for the same products.

More at [link to op4th.com]